Remember the bad boy in high school? The one you really liked, and daydreamed over? Maybe he was on the football team, or maybe he was the one your parents didn't want you to see. Then school was over, and you grew up, put away your childish dreams and went on your way...

What if he came back? For you.

Picture two kids, a girl and a boy, living in the projects. At age seven they'd played doctor together, but by high school he was going one direction and she was going another. She grew up to be academic and studious, because if there was one thing she intended to do in her life, it was get out of the projects. And she did. And she became a lawyer.

And he became a criminal, spending three womanless years behind bars.

Which brings us to the present day, when she (whose name happens to be Katherine) is running a volunteer outreach program to help troubled kids, and he (whose name happens to be Jake) is one of the reformed criminals who shows up to mentor. Katherine and Jake aren't seven any more. They both look more than fine to each other, and Katherine (who has been single for at least three years) and Jake (remember those three years of jail enforced celibacy?) are on the cusp of something only they don't have a clue what it is.

Doreen DeSalvo has written an enthralling across the tracks story. Once a Thief has so many things going for it that I don't know where to start. It's got a hero with a wicked way with words. He's also a hero with a three year appetite and three years worth of stored up imagination. Once a Thief has a desperately lonely heroine who's deprived herself of everything in her single-minded quest to get where she is now. She's putty in his hands. He's whispers a thousand kinky words (well, maybe not a whole thousand, but what they lack in number, they make up for in heat) that have poor, receptive Katherine dissolving into her sensible shoes before Jake and Katherine even make it out of the diner. And that kiss in the parking lot...

Without going into any more detail, let me just say that this is one steamy little story that will have you panting in no time. It's got the four C's: character, charisma, cuddling and cuffs. What more could you want? This is a great summer read (or fall, spring or winter for that matter) especially if you, like Katherine, have a hidden kinky side. This is a short walk on the wild side with Katherine and Jake, and it is one that you won't forget.

Reviewed by Maîtresse
Copyright August 2006